First published 2017
Kuranes retreats into dreams to escape his waking life, crafting the magnificent city of Celephaïs in his sleep. This fantasy realm sits in the valley of Ooth-Nargai beside the Cerenerian Sea, where time stands still and nothing decays or changes. Kuranes can leave his creation and return years later to find everything exactly as he left it. But as he becomes increasingly absorbed in his imaginary kingdom, the boundary between dream and reality begins to blur. Like Lord Dunsany's Thomas Shap, who neglects his business for his invented realm of Larkar, Kuranes finds himself drawn deeper into his dream world. The collection pairs Lovecraft's tale with the stories that influenced it, including Dunsany's work and Bierce's imagery of horses drifting off cliffs where horizon meets sky. These fantastic stories explore the power of dreams achieved through sleep or exotic substances, revealing how the mind creates refuge from the mundane world.
Genres: literary-fiction, 20th-century, fantasy, horror
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, thought-provoking
Tropes: escapism, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Celephaïs, Cerenerian Sea, Ooth-Nargai, Larkar
Period: 19th-century, 20th-century
128 pages · Paperback · CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform